"What follows is based on actual occurrences. Although much has been changed for rhetorical purposes, it must be regarded in its essence as fact. However, it should in no way be associated with that great body of factual information relating to orthodox Zen Buddhist practice. It's not very factual on motorcycles, either."
what a great intro to a great book! it applies pretty well to this whole bloggy thing, too.
"You see things vacationing on a motorcycle in a way that is completely different from any other. In a car you're always in a compartment, and because you're used to it you don't realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You're a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame. "
people who don't ride never seem to understand the fundamental difference between driving in a cage and experiencing travel on a bike. this addresses that problem pretty well.
"We're in such a hurry most of the time we never get much chance to talk. The result is a kind of endless day-to-day shallowness, a monotony that leaves a person wondering years later where all the time went and sorry that it's all gone. "
it's all too easy to become obsessed with what's supposed to happen next. what is now is too easily overlooked. our sense of time and presence is horribly distorted much of the time and leads to much anxiety and displeasure with life as it is, as opposed to how it was or how it should be. neither future nor past actually exist outside of a little trick of the mind. because the mind identifies itself as an independent consciousness, it's constantly trying to categorize its perceptions and separate them on a one dimensional linear scale called time.
"You look at where you're going and where you are and it never makes sense, but then you look back at where you've been and a pattern seems to emerge. And if you project forward from that pattern, then sometimes you can come up with something."
this statement both contradicts and confirms the last commentary. contradiction is a necessary and integral part of truth. it's the other side of the same principle that fiction uses to create a suspension of disbelief. the greatest mythologies and illusions are created by using bits of truth as a foundation from which to build a convincing abstraction.
"That's all the motorcycle is, a system of concepts worked out in steel. There's no part in it, no shape in it, that is not out of someone's mind."
"I've noticed that people who have never worked with steel have trouble seeing this... that the motorcycle is primarily a mental phenomenon. They associate metal with given shapes... pipes, rods, girders, tools, parts... all of them fixed and inviolable, and think of it as primarily physical. But a person who does machining or foundry work or forge work or welding sees "steel" as having no shape at all. Steel can be any shape you want if you are skilled enough, and any shape but the one you want if you are not."
"These shapes are all out of someone's mind. That's important to see. The steel? Hell, even the steel is out of someone's mind. There's no steel in nature. Anyone from the Bronze Age could have told you that. All nature has is a potential for steel. There's nothing else there. But what's "potential"? That's also in someone's mind!"
this is a great way to look at a bike. it can be especially useful when hitting a wall of frustration while wrenching. it can also be kinda cool to ponder in the back of your mind while actually riding...just remember to pay attention to your surroundings, too!
contemplate the wrench-flower. explore every aspect of it in your mind. then just relax for a few minutes and let your mind clear. now sit still and just breathe for awhile letting your mind be clear. when your done, get up and have something to sip on for a bit. go put some good miles on the ol scooter. rest, and repeat as necessary and as often as possible.
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